BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2001
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 25, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 2001 (Bonilla) - As Amended: March 28, 2012
SUBJECT : Pupil assessment
SUMMARY : Establishes processes to address specified issues
related the statewide pupil assessment program. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Expresses the intent of the Legislature that the
reauthorization of the statewide pupil assessment program
include:
a) A plan to streamline and reduce state-mandated middle
and high school testing in order to restore instructional
time and minimize assessments that are not directly
connected to teaching and learning in the classroom.
b) A plan to bring together K-12 and public and private
postsecondary policy leaders to develop criteria and
develop pathways to align middle and high school
assessments with college and career readiness and equate
specified grade 11 assessments with college admission
tests.
c) A plan for transitioning to a system of high-quality
assessments that has tangible meaning to middle and high
school pupils.
2)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), in
consultation with the State Board of Education (SBE), school
administrators, teachers, school district governing board
members, pupil representatives, and parents, to develop and
recommend a plan to the SBE that:
a) Reduces the number of minutes annually devoted to the
administration of middle and high school assessments and
better balances the time spent on assessment across grade
levels.
b) Eliminates redundant or overlapping assessments.
c) Eliminates assessments used solely for the purpose of
federal or state accountability that do not assess the
content learned in that school year by the pupil.
d) Eliminates the practice of assigning a failing score to
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pupils who do not take particular courses and, therefore,
do not take the end-of-course assessment.
e) Eliminates statewide end-of-course assessments that are
unnecessary for the purposes of state and federal
accountability requirements.
f) Turns around assessment results more quickly so they are
received in the same school year in which they are
administered.
3)Requires the SPI, in consultation with the SBE, the segments
of public and private higher education, career technical and
technical training institutions, school administrators,
teachers, school district governing board members, pupil
representatives, and parents, to develop a plan to strengthen
the alignment between state-mandated middle and high school
assessments and the entry requirements of public and private
colleges and universities and postsecondary career and
technical training institutions and to recommend to the SBE
the following:
a) Principles that would strengthen the alignment of
assessments of middle and high school students to the
requirements for entry into college or career
opportunities.
b) Options for equating, if practicable, statewide
assessments in grade 11 English language arts, including a
strengthened writing component, algebra I and II, and
summative mathematics to college admission tests.
c) Options for using the grade 11 assessments in core
subjects, including, but not limited to, the Early
Assessment Program, to provide diagnostic information to
teachers, administrators, parents, and pupils to ensure
appropriate course placement in grade 12 for stronger
college and career preparedness.
d) Options for using the grade 11 assessment results in
English language arts as one tool to ensure effective
placement for grade 12 English learners to promote full
English proficiency.
e) A plan and timeline to expand and strengthen the Early
Assessment Program to provide information to postsecondary
institutions about pupil preparedness for postsecondary
education.
4)Requires the SPI, in consultation with the SBE, school
administrators, teachers, school district governing board
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members, pupil representatives, and parents, to develop
multiple methods to provide for pupil recognition, rewards,
and incentives that a local education agency may adopt,
including, but not limited to:
a) Assessment performance as one component of a pupil's
academic transcript.
b) Assessment performance as one component of a final
course grade or course passage as determined by the
teacher.
c) Assessment performance as one criterion for eligibility
for merit-based scholarships.
d) The right of a pupil to be exempted from the requirement
to take the California high school exit examination if he
or she can demonstrate proficiency on the other, equivalent
assessments.
e) The right of a pupil to be exempted from other required
statewide assessments if equivalent or more rigorous exams
are taken and equivalent or sufficiently comparable subject
matter proficiency is shown.
f) Making the Early Assessment Program available to all
pupils at all schools.
5)Requires the SPI to present recommendations to the SBE by May
30, 2013.
6)Requires the SBE to hold two public hearings on the
recommendations and to adopt or modify and adopt the
recommendations by September 30, 2013.
7)Requires the SPI and SBE to present a schedule and
implementation plan that meet the intent of this bill to the
Governor and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of
the Legislature.
8)Authorizes the California Department of Education (CDE) to use
specified federal carryover funds to implement the requirement
of the bill.
EXISTING LAW establishes the Leroy Greene California Assessment
of Academic Achievement Act (Greene Act), to provide a statewide
pupil assessment program. The Greene Act will become
inoperative July 1, 2014. Current law also establishes a
process and timeline for the reauthorization of the pupil
assessment program and to align the new assessments with the
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common core standards developed by the Common Core State
Standards Initiative consortium.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a
state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors
Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The standards
were developed in collaboration with teachers, school
administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent
framework to prepare students for college and the workforce. To
date, the standards have been adopted by all but five
states-Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia.
California adopted the standards on August 2, 2010. Having
adopted the standards, the next steps now are to ensure that
curricula, instructional materials, teacher preparation and
professional development, and assessments are all aligned to
them.
Related legislation. SB 1 X5 (Steinberg), Chapter 2, Statutes
of 2010, Fifth Extraordinary Session, created the Curriculum
Development and Supplemental Materials Commission to develop and
recommend academic content standards in language arts and
mathematics with at least 85% of those standards consisting of
the common core state standards for each subject.
AB 250 (Brownley), Chapter 608, Statutes of 2011, renamed the
commission the Instructional Quality Commission and expanded its
role to include recommendations regarding the policies and
activities needed to align the state's curriculum frameworks,
instructional materials, professional development programs,
pupil assessments, and academic accountability systems with the
new standards. AB 250 also:
1)Extends the expiration date of the Greene Act from July 1,
2013 to July 1, 2014.
2)Requires the SBE to adopt revised curriculum frameworks
aligned to the new standards by May 30, 2013, for mathematics,
and by May 30, 2014, for English language arts.
3)Requires the SPI to develop recommendations and report to the
fiscal and appropriate policy committees of both houses of the
Legislature by November 1, 2012 regarding the reauthorization
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of the statewide pupil assessment program, including a plan
for transitioning to a system of high quality assessments.
AB 1521 (Brownley), currently pending in the Assembly,
eliminates testing under the Standardized Testing and Reporting
(STAR) Program in grade 9 for English language arts (ELA) and
end-of-course assessments in Integrated Math 1-3 and
Integrated/Coordinated Science 1-4.
This bill addresses issues related to the use of middle and high
school assessments after the statewide assessment program has
been revised and reauthorized in three areas:
1)Reducing redundant or overlapping assessments in order to
reduce test-taking time and increase time spent on
instruction.
2)Strengthening the relevance of assessments to entry
requirements to postsecondary education and career-technical
institutions.
3)Making the assessments more meaningful to pupils in grades 7
to 12.
Reducing redundant or overlapping assessments. AB 250 requires
the SPI to make recommendations for "minimizing testing time
while not jeopardizing the validity, reliability, fairness, or
instructional usefulness of the assessment results." AB 1521
eliminates specific tests. This bill reiterates the requirement
of AB 250 by calling for the elimination of redundant or
overlapping assessments, assessments that do not assess the
content learned in that year by the pupil, and assessments that
are unnecessary for the purposes of state or federal
accountability requirements. This bill also creates a separate
process and a different timeline for making recommendations in
this area. However, the CDE reports that it is already
considering these issues under the authority provided by AB 250
and will address them in its report that is due November 1,
2012. Therefore, staff recommends that the bill be amended to
delete the findings and declarations and requirements related to
reducing test-taking time and increasing time spent of
instruction.
Strengthening the relevance of assessments to entry requirements
to postsecondary education and career-technical institutions.
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This bill requires the SPI to make recommendations to (1)
strengthen the alignment of assessments in grades 7 through 12
to college and career entry requirements and (2) equate
specified 11th grade assessments to college admission tests. A
recent Policy Brief from Policy Analysis for California
Education (PACE), called "State Standards, the SAT, and
Admission to the University of California" (November 2011),
reports on a study to determine the effectiveness of the
California Standards Tests (CSTs) in predicting college freshman
grades. The study found that the CSTs are nearly as effective
as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in predicting college
freshman grades, although neither test is a very effective
predictor of second year college grades. This bill requires the
SPI, in consultation with representatives from public and
private colleges and universities, among others, to develop
recommendations regarding ways to align tests such as the CSTs
with college admissions requirements.
This bill also requires the SPI to make recommendations on
options for "equating" grade 11 statewide assessments to college
admissions tests, if practicable. This would require equating
criterion-referenced achievement tests with norm-referenced
aptitude tests. A criterion-referenced test measures
acquisition of knowledge in a specific subject area, and an
individual's score on such a test is a measure of how much
subject matter content has been mastered. A norm-reference
test, on the other hand, measures and individual's performance
against the performance of a standardized population of test
takers, so an individual's score is a measure of performance
relative to that population.
In addition, psychometricians distinguish between achievement
tests and aptitude tests and warn against using one for the
purposes of the other. Aptitude tests are considered
predictive; a way of indicating the likely future performance of
an individual, based on both in school and out-of-school
experiences. Achievement tests, by contrast, are more
subject-specific and are designed to assess acquired knowledge
in a particular area or areas. Performance on an achievement
test is much more likely to be improved by studying than
performance on an aptitude test.
Equating scores of different types of tests has not yet proven
to be feasible. In addition, the author's office indicates
that, for purposes of the bill, the intent behind the provision
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relating to equating assessments is the same as the intent
behind the requirement relating to the alignment of assessments.
Therefore, staff recommends that the bill be amended to delete
the requirement that the SPI make recommendations for equating
grade 11 assessments with college admission tests.
Making assessments more meaningful to pupils. Current testing
and accountability systems in California are undermined by the
fact that most tests have no consequences-good or bad-for the
individual test taker, and there is no incentive for the test
taker to take the test seriously. This bill addresses this
problem by requiring the SPI to develop multiple methods to
provide for pupil recognition or rewards that local education
agencies could adopt as an incentive for improved performance.
Technical amendments. This bill requires the SPI to make
recommendations regarding the use of the Early Assessment
Program (EAP) to provide diagnostic information and help ensure
appropriate course placement as well the expansion of EAP to
more public and private colleges and universities. The EAP is a
collaborative effort among the California State University
(CSU), the CDE, and the SBE to ensure that college-bound high
school graduates have the English and mathematics skills
expected by the state university. The EAP tests are augmented
11th grade CSTs developed by CSU and K-12 faculty. Results of
the tests can help pupils identify additional coursework needed
in 12th grade to better prepare themselves for college admission
and success. It is not known whether the EAP will continue in
the future under the same name. In addition, the requirements
in the bill relate to future iterations and expansion of the
EAP. Therefore, staff recommends that references to the EAP in
the bill be replaced with references to "future early assessment
programs."
The bill provides that one option for making assessments more
meaningful to pupils may be using assessment performance as one
component of a final course grade or course passage as
determined by the teacher. Staff recommends adding "if the
course substantially aligns with the grade level content
standards assessed."
The bill provides that another option for making assessments
more meaningful to pupils may be to use assessment performance
as one criterion for eligibility for merit-based scholarships.
Staff recommends that this be expanded to include "recognition
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programs and internship opportunities."
The bill provides that yet another option for making assessments
more meaningful to pupils may be to allow a pupil to be exempted
from the California High School Exit Exam if he or she can
demonstrate proficiency on other assessments that are found to
be equivalent in terms of content assessed. Staff recommends
that the other assessments be substantially equivalent in terms
of rigor and content assessed.
Arguments in support. Supporters argue that "now is the time to
rethink how best to link what students demonstrate on statewide
assessments with the recognition and support students
deserve?.by potentially including assessment results as a
component of a student's final course grade, eligibility for
merit-based scholarships or waiving other assessments equal in
rigor."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support Opposition
Association of California School AdministratorsNone received
California School Boards Association
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087